Well intended program turned into mud

The Boundary County Fire Safe program received a cash infusion as part of a $435,000 federal stimulus from the Department of Homeland Security. 

This program is well-intended and needed to establish fire suppression zone in rural and urban interface areas.  I support this program and encouraged my neighbors to participate.

Now, the program appears  to have gotten muddy….literally.   A large tract  of land between Northridge Estates and Marx Subdivision  was cleared of all small trees and brush in June.  The terrain varies from a 12-to-50 degree slope among a collection of draws that extend downward from the North Kootenai Rim onto an alluvial fan. 

Native vegetation is vital for  the capture, dispersion, diffusion, absorption, evaporation and percolation of all precipitation.  The interruption of this process has resulted in a vastly increased amount of runoff water within a given rainfall event.

Just within the last 30 days I’ve experienced four rainfall events, each delivering much larger amounts of runoff, and two of which came within inches of turning my daylight basement into a creek bed.

I filed a report with the inspector general at the Deptartment of Homeland Security. Then I called Mike Godnek at the National Resource Conservation Service office here in town to inform him of what has happened.  His reply was, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I then contacted assistant city administrator Dave Sims of Bonners Ferry and the Boundary County Commissioners.  Dave Sims showed concern for this issue by inspecting the site, photographing damage and attending the county commissioners hearing on Aug. 3. 

The county commissioners response was quite different.  Walt Kirby was quoted as saying, “I guess you’re here to see Jerry piss and moan about his property,” by a concerned citizen prior to the hearing.  Chairman Ron Smith’s attitude was singularly focused on loss-control and liability for the county.  Dan Dinning pretty much just sat there.

Boundary County Fires Fire Coordinator Don Gunter, Inland Forest Management Vice President Mike Wolcott and Paul Merritt of Merritt Logging have been responsible for implementing this program.  They have responded with true professionalism and concern.  Merritt Logging provided me with the swaddle tubes to aide in runoff capture.

Bureau of Land Management hydrologist Mike Stevenson performed a site evaluation on Aug. 4.  I came away with a distinct impression that that he was here for loss-control.

I was the co-author of the Stormwater Management Ordinance for the City of Hayden and I was part of the subcommittee that drafted the Boundary County Comprehensive Plan, Natural Resource component.  I have a working understanding of these issues. 

If our Comprehensive Plan and supporting ordinances had the proper level of review processes recommended by the citizen subcommittees a few years ago, this whole situation could have been averted. 

Instead, our county commissioners chose to render an effective document useless.

As a result I have been saddled with weeks of back-breaking hand excavation work and thousands of dollars in expenses for flood insurance, retaining materials, sprinkler system modifications power line modification and further drainage provisions all brought to me beyond competence a callous county commission and last but not least the American taxpayers.

Jerry Higgs

Bonners Ferry